A Cat in the Dark
by kyranmat
Summary: The story of a Khajiit in the Dark Brotherhood.
1. Prologue

Dar'Saro licked his lips after he finished feeding on his latest mark. Flicking his tail, he smiled. _The best thing about Dar'Saro being in the Dark Brotherhood, _thought the vampire Khajiit, _i__s that this one can feed on his targets. _The tall, black-furred feline looked through multiple drawers before finding a dagger. Carefully, he began slicing the young Nord woman's throat along the incisions he had made with his teeth, and then placed the dagger in her hand and wrapped her hand around it. He had always found joy in making his kills look like suicide. After sweeping the house clean of any valuables, he departed the house, into the dark night streets of Whiterun.

"You there," a voice said, causing Dar'Saro to jump. "What were you doing in Ysolda's house?" Dar'Saro turned in the direction of the voice to be greeted by a guard.

"Oh, well," the assassin began to explain. "Ysolda is a good friend of this one. Dar'Saro was merely conducting... _business_ with her." The guard shot the cat a suspicious glare through his helmet.

"Then you won't mind if I take a look inside, right cat?" said the guard, walking towards the door.

_This one must act quick,_ the vampire thought. In an instant, Dar'Saro unsheathed his Ebony dagger and disappeared, taking the guard by surprise. As quickly as he had vanished, the Khajiit reappeared behind the guard, jabbing his dagger deep into the man's back. The guard sank to his knees, and Dar'Saro removed his dagger. He could hear footsteps rushing towards him. _No time to hide the body,_ he thought. With finesse, Dar'Saro ran towards the city wall and jumped clear over it, landing on the other side on all fours. Upon reaching the road, he nonchalantly walked towards the stables. Upon arriving, he walked up to a carriage that had a man sitting on the front. "This one would like to go to Falkreath." He said.

"Twenty septims, cat." replied the man. Dar'Saro handed over the gold and climbed in the back of the carraige, set for Falkreath. His contract was completed and it was time to collect the bounty.


	2. Chapter 1: A Favor for Astrid

Dar'Saro smirked as Astrid handed him a large sack filled to the brim with septims. "Here you go, brother. Five-hundred septims for the death of Ysolda." The ebony-furred humanoid cat opened his mouth to say something, but his Dark Sister cut him off. "Before you go asking for another contract," Astrid said. "I need you to do something."

"What is it you need Dar'Saro to do?" asked the vampire. "Is it of great importance?"

"Well," Astrid began to explain. "Arnbjorn seems to be having violent nightmares lately. When he's having them, he says something about Hircine betraying him, and then he transforms into a werewolf."

"This sounds troublesome to Dar'Saro." Dar'Saro flicked his tail back and fourth in anticipation of finding out what Astrid was about to ask of him.

"Tonight, if he transforms, I need you to follow him." Astrid told him. "I would ask one of our other Dark Brothers, but out of all of us, you are the fastest and have the best sense of smell. Can you do it for me?"

Dar'Saro thought over his Dark Sister's request for a moment, scratching behind his ear as he did so. "You can count on this one, Astrid."

"Thank you so much, Dar'Saro." Astrid said with a sigh of relief. "Don't worry, I'll pay you for doing this one way or another."

As the larger of the two moons reached the very top of the sky, Dar'Saro listened to the silence of the sanctuary. Suddenly, muffled words broke the silence, coming from Astrid and Arnbjorn's room. The Khajiit listened carefully, trying to pick up the words with his keen hearing. "Can't control... that... I have to..." The words faded in and out, as if Arnbjorn was placing something over his mouth as he spoke in his sleep. "Hircine... betrayed... don't want to... Astrid." As quickly as the whispers had begun, they stopped. As Dar'Saro listened for more whispers, he was startled as he heard a bloodcurdling scream, followed by the sounds of bones snapping and rearranging.

Arnbjorn dashed through the door in beast form, leaving a large hole in it and nearly knocking the eavesdropping cat on to the floor. The vampire cat quickly pursued the large canine, following him out of the sanctuary. As Arnbjorn run deeper into the woods, Dar'Saro lost sight of him, having to rely on his sense of smell.

_Sniff._ Nothing. _Sniff, sniff._ The cat caught wind of his Dark Brother, sprinting in the direction of the scent, and quickly regained sight when the thick woods gave way to a small clearing. Dar'Saro sat at the edge of the clearing, when the wind changed directions. Abruptly, Arnbjorn stopped in his tracks. Still on all fours, he points is nose into the air and inhaled deeply through his nostrils. He quickly whipped around and located Dar'Saro, giving him the death stare. For a brief second, his eyes snapped into a human set, and Dar'Saro could sense pain in them, along with a look that said "_I'm so sorry."_ As suddenly as they changed the first time, they snapped back to the mindless, feral look from before. Arnbjorn charged Dar'Saro, and the cat was not quick enough to react. He was tackled by the huge man-wolf. Arnbjorn raised one of his claws and slashed the Kahjiit across the chest, leaving a deep wound. The werewolf raised his other paw, ready to strike, but was stopped.

The vampire stared in awe as a tendril as black as the void wrapped around Arnbjorn's wrist. A voice boomed through the forest, sounding loud, but at the same time, quiet. "Never betray the Dark Brotherhood or its secrets. To do so is to invoke the wrath of Sithis." Upon the final word, a dark portal expanded behind Arnbjorn, and from it came more tendrils. They grabbed the wolf everywhere they could - by his wrists, by his ankles, his waist, and his neck. The beast howled out in terror and they pulled him into the dark portal. When Dar'Saro could see no more of his Dark Brother, the portal snapped shut.

Dar'Saro dragged himself back to the Sanctuary and into his room, desperately searching for his spare Potion of Blood. He preferred to feed on live prey, but he kept a few around in case of an emergency. He dug through his chest before finally finding the bottle, which he quickly opened and chugged. As he finish the vial, the gash in his chest sealed. The vampire cat stood up, and walked towards Astrid's room to give her the grave news. As he approached the broken door, he heard a voice from behind him. "Looking for me?"

Dar'Saro, obviously startled, whipped around and flicked his tail in annoyance. "Astrid," he said. "You startled this one, but that is beside the point. Dar'Saro was following Arnbjorn, when-" Astrid cut the assassin off.

"I know. I saw the whole thing."


	3. Chapter 2: Grave Measures

It had been three days since the incident in the woods. Dar'Saro woke up from his cat-nap at around 9:00 PM and immediately went to check up on Astrid. He goes to her bedroom door and peeks in. As she had been the past three days, she was lying in bed, blankly staring at the wall in a near pitch-black room. The Khajiit briefly thought about trying to talk to her, but dismissed the thought when he remembered that she had nearly threw a dagger at him last time. Instead he walked into the dining hall to ask Nazeem about a contract.

"Hello, Dar'Saro," Nazeem greeted. "Here for another contract?"

"Greetings, Dark Brother," Dar'Saro replied. "Yes, this one would like another contract." Nazeem began shuffling through a small stack of paper before picking one out and setting the rest down.

"Ah, here we are." The crimson-clad Redguard handed the vampire the paper. "A boy named Aventus Arentino wants some old hag they call Grelod the Kind in Riften. She runs the orphanage. He's just a kid, so you're going to need to go pick up the payment, which may not be much, directly from him in Windhelm."

"Thank you, Nazeem. Dar'Saro will get on this immediately." The ebony-furred cat turned and exited the sanctuary. _Finally,_ he thought. _This one can get some fresh air. _The cat looked around at the serene woods, trees standing tall and animals prancing about, and took a deep inhale through his nose, expecting the smell of nature, but instead being greeted with the smell of blood, along with another familiar scent.

"Arnbjorn!" Dar'Saro exclaimed aloud. He climbed up a tree rushed towards the scent, jumping from one tree to another, taking another sniff every few seconds. After about two minutes of running through the forest, Dar'Saro arrived at a familiar scene. He came upon the small forest clearing from the night Arnbjorn was taken by Sithis. _This is where Arnbjorn attacked Dar'Saro,_ he cat took a look around and found Arnbjorn. His chest had a large gash in it, much like the one that he had dealt to Dar'Saro, along with cuts on his wrists, ankles, and neck. Blood was spewing from the wounds, and Dar'Saro knew he had to be quick. The vampire picked the burly man up and ran as fast as he possibly could, arriving at the sanctuary in half the time it took him to arrive to Arnbjorn. "Astrid," Dar'Saro yelled. "Astrid, come quickly! This one needs your help!"

Astrid ran out to the main chamber of the sanctuary, and almost shrieked at the sight of her husband. Blood was pouring out from the large wound in his chest, and trickled out of his wrists and ankles. "By Sithis, how did he... where was... how did you find him?" Without giving Dar'Saro a chance to answer, she spoke again. "Oh my god, he looks horrible! Healing potions won't do anything for him. What can we do? Damn it, I already lost him once, I can't lose him again!" For the first time, Dar'Saro had seen Astrid cry. She was the last person he would expect to show such a sign of weakness. Dar'Saro snickered to himself and inhaled through his nose, catching a scent, or rather the _lack_ of a scent, he had not noticed before.

"Astrid, there is something important about Arnbjorn's condition that Dar'Saro must tell you about." The cat said, a grave look on his face.

"W-what is it?" asked Astrid, trying to stop crying.

"This one no longer smells the beast blood. Arnbjorn is no longer a werewolf." Astrid's eyes widened at the shocking news. "Dar'Saro can think of one thing he can do to save your husband."

"What is it? Please, you have to do it!"

The Khajiit looked Astrid in the eyes. "Dar'Saro must turn him into a vampire." When the words finished coming out of his mouth, Astrid adopted the same look as Dar'Saro. With a look of defeat, the Nord woman looked down at her husband, another tear crawling down her cheek, and nodded, signaling Dar'Saro to do it. "This one has a Potion of Blood in his chest. You must go get it before it is too late." Astrid hurried to Dar'Saro's room and frantically searched for the potion. When she found it, she ran back, handing it to Dar'Saro. The vampire bore his sharp fangs and implanted them into Arnbjorn's neck, sucking what little blood he could afford to out. He then unsheathed his dagger of Ebony and cut his wrist, letting some of his own blood drip onto the fang wound and into Arnbjorn's mouth.

Dar'Saro briefly listened to see if the man's pulse had risen, even slightly. _Thump...thump... thump thump... thump thump... thump thump..._ The assassin quickly uncapped the Potion of Blood and raised Arnbjorn's head slightly, pouring the potion into his mouth. Suddenly, Arnbjorn's eyes snapped open and he had begun to breath normally, his wounds ceasing to bleed and slowly sealing.

"Oh, thank Sithis!" Astrid exclaimed, hugging her husband. "I thought I lost you."

Dar'Saro sighed in relief, but the relief soon subsided when he realized what he was going to have to tell his Dark Brother.


End file.
